Friday, January 3, 1991 at Snively Arena, Durham, NH
HOCKEY EAST GAME
Merrimack Warriors (9-9-0, 0-6-0 HE) 2 0 0 - 2
New Hampshire Wildcats (11-5-0, 5-2-0 HE) 2 0 3 - 5
FIRST PERIOD NH-MC
1. MC1, Dan Gravelle 11 (Jeff Massey, Alex Weinrich), 0:10. 0-1
2. NH1, Kevin Thomson 5 (Ted Russell, Joe Flanagan), 0:22. 1-1
3. MC2, Agostino Casale 16 (Cooper Naylor, Teal Fowler), 4:46. 1-2
4. NH2, Thomson 6 (Flanagan, Scott Morrow), 14:39. 2-2
SECOND PERIOD
No scoring.
THIRD PERIOD
5. NH3, Glenn Stewart 7 (Greg Klym, Jesse Cooper), 5:13. PPG, GWG 3-2
6. NH4, Morrow #12 (Thomson, Flanagan), 6:38. 4-2
7. NH5, Thomson 7 (Flanagan, Morrow), 19:09. ENG 5-2
SHOTS ON GOAL: Merrimack 16-17-18 = 51
New Hampshire 11-10-15 = 36
GOALIES: Merrimack, Steve D'Amore (7-8-0, ~59:00, 35 shots-31 saves).
New Hampshire, Jeff Levy (9-5-0, 60:00, 51 shots-49 saves).
POWER PLAYS: Merrimack, 0 of 4. New Hampshire, 1 of 4.
PENALTIES: Merrimack 5/10. New Hampshire 6/12.
REFEREE: Frank Cole. LINESMEN: John Jones, Andy Hennigar.
ATTENDANCE: 2,824 (capacity 3,599).
THREE STARS: 1. UNH, Jeff Levy (51 shots-49 saves).
2. UNH, Kevin Thomson (3-1--4).
3. Merrimack, Steve D'Amore (35 shots-31 saves).
UNH goalie Jeff Levy made a career-high 49 saves and left Merrimack shaking
their heads in amazement as he got over some early jitters to backstop the
Wildcats to a 5-2 win in the return to Hockey East action for both teams.
UNH moved into a first-place tie with Maine with the win, although Maine
has a game in hand. Merrimack fell to 0-6-0 in HE and tied the HE record
for consecutive league losses at 14. Kevin Thomson had a hat trick and
an assist to almost completely dominate the scoring for UNH. Merrimack
has never beaten UNH in Snively Arena - they'll get another chance Feb 1st.
Merrimack wasted no time getting started as Jeff Massey tested Levy off the
opening draw. On the ensuing faceoff to Levy's left, Gravelle won the
draw, went to the net and put in the rebound of Massey's shot to make it
1-0 just ten seconds in. But before the Warriors could savor their lead,
Thomson came right back to tie it 12 seconds later, and it looked like we
might be in for a high-scoring battle.
Nothing could have been further from the truth. Both goalies would sparkle
in this nationally-televised game although there were certainly enough
shots to account for a lot of goals. Levy stoned the Warriors after the
4:46 mark of the first, when Agostino Casale took a feed from Cooper Naylor,
flew in and scored his 16th of the season. Merrimack, which has had trouble
scoring goals in league play, fired an incredible 51 shots on Levy and
outshot the Wildcats in every period. Steve D'Amore also had one of his
finest games as a Warrior, stopping 31 shots and allowing only four goals.
After UNH's Thomson tied the score at 2-2 with his second of the night,
D'Amore matched Levy save for save through the rest of the first, a
scoreless second and into the third before surrendering two early goals in
the final stanza.
Merrimack's offense was relentless, throwing everything AND the kitchen
sink at Levy. Unfortunately, what Merrimack didn't know was that Levy
actually has a better record in games in which he sees more than 30 shots,
as compared to a .500 record when seeing under 30. He got sharper and
sharper with every shot. Gravelle, Casale, Massey, and Fowler moved the
puck well in the UNH zone and the Warriors generated what should have been
enough quality chances to score goals and win. Maybe on some other night,
against some other goalie.
The Warriors took two penalties near the end of the second and early in
the third. Gravelle started to get visibly frustrated and crosschecked
Thomson as he tried to move the puck around the boards in his own end, but
D'Amore made several beautiful saves on the UNH man advantage. But when
Mark Cornforth slashed Thomson on a rush to prevent him from moving by
him, it only took 38 seconds for UNH to capitalize. Glenn Stewart beat
D'Amore from in front after a feed from Greg Klym to give UNH a 3-2 lead
at 5:13 and crush the Warriors' hopes, for a short time anyway. 1:25 later,
Thomson fed Scott Morrow for a shot that D'Amore had trouble dealing with,
perhaps his only bad goal of the night, but it put the Wildcats up two
at 4-2. The Warriors were caught back on their heels, reeling from that
third goal, and the Wildcats smelled blood and hustled their way to the
two-goal lead.
But instead of packing it in, Merrimack fired up the offense again and
dominated play for the rest of the game, and several times it appeared
they finally had Levy beaten, only to have Levy knock it away or flash
that glove out. He stopped all 17 Merrimack shots in the second and all
18 in the third to earn his #1 star. Both Morrow and Flanagan passed
up the empty-netter at the end to let Thomson get his hat trick for the
5-2 final.
EPILOGUE
I'm glad Prime picked up this game out West, what an exciting game to
see and I hope the Western viewers enjoyed it! I'm particularly happy
that all the players I told Carol to watch in the game figured in the
scoring and in the outcome. It makes it look like I know what I'm talking
about. :-) I did radio for this game, as I have been doing for a while
now, and it was a great game to watch and comment on. I'm also glad that
the game showed that Merrimack's 0-6 HE record isn't truly indicative of
how good they are. Afterwards, the players were obviously upset that they
weren't able to score more goals with 51 shots, but it's not every night
that you run into a goalie who plays as well as Levy did. Who said he
was struggling? :-)
Coach Ron Anderson was extremely pleased with the way his team played,
and if they can give as solid an effort as this every game the rest of
the way, the wins will come. Several mistakes were the only difference
in this game, and the more experienced UNH club was able to take advantage
of those that Merrimack made. UNH's Dick Umile had to enjoy the performance
his star goalie gave, but I don't think he wants to see 51 shots every
night.
Merrimack next plays at idle BC next Friday, and a similar performance
could net them a win, although they will be facing another good goalie in
LaGrand. UNH goes to RPI Jan 7 and hosts SLU Jan 13, then returns to
HE play on Jan 17 at BU.
The fish mysteriously didn't appear after UNH's first goal tonight, even
with a primetime audience. Where was it? Dan, my radio partner, said he
was psyched up to see it and when it didn't come out, it threw him off
for the whole first period.
OTHER SCORES
I just watched Denver beat Duluth, 6-2 (this Prime-NESN game-swapping
agreement is great), as the Pioneers jumped out to an early lead and never
looked back. Also, in the first round of the Dexter Classic, both Maine
and UMass-Lowell won their opening round games and will meet in the final
Sat night; no exact scores yet although UML won a close one and Maine
was crushing Army last I heard.
---
Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask]
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